Comfort eats, all dressed up

Sanjyot Keer's food videos turn even everyday sabzi into art. It's why we're hooked to the foods he cooks

- Urvee Modwel

Grandma picked her recipes from Tarla Dalal, tweaking them to create new family favourites. Mum and dad tuned in to Khana Khazana, marvelling at Sanjeev Kapoor's knife sets, avocados and other newfangled delights. Millennials turned to food blogs, trudging through lengthy chef backstories to eventually reach the recipe.

What's everyone doing these days? On Instagram, naked men are telling people that brinjal is bad for us and chicken contains worms (It isn't; it doesn't). Influencers are doing 10-second reviews of 10-course dinners.

So, it's no surprise that when a video by Sanjyot Keer pops up, we tend to linger and listen. Most of his clips feature himself, preparing simple versions of familiar Indian dishes, with a voiceover that makes everything sound easy - even dhaba-style cashew masala. The videos look professionally shot. The background music is always appropriate. His cooking channel, Your Food Lab, has 62 lakh subscribers on YouTube and 3M followers on Instagram. This is apart from the 268K followers he has on Instagram. Keer is only 32, but he's been doing this since 2016.

Mint to be

He started off in the home kitchen, went to culinary school, worked in restaurants and focused on building his superpower. By 2015, he was food producer for MasterChef India, learning about camera work and presentation even as he took charge of the pantry. And, as so many journeys go, he decided to cook for the cameras a year later.